MOOSE JAW — Holy Trinity Catholic School Division has amended its budget for this year after receiving nearly $12,000 extra from several sources to support various programs.
During a recent board meeting, trustees voted to update the 2024-25 budget to $47,320,640 from $47,309,230, to account for the extra $11,410 that the organization received recently.
The Ministry of Education provided the division with $3,500 to support the parent-teacher home visits initiative at All Saints in Swift Current. Staff there are in their second year of visits and work with roughly 17 families.
This initiative began in November 2021 as a pilot project at All Saints and École St. Margaret School in Moose Jaw.
This project was modelled on the Parent-Teacher Home Visits Project Organization in the United States. Research results from there show that schools that systematically implemented this project experienced decreased rates of chronic absenteeism in students and increased rates of student proficiency in English and math.
The home visits connect to the Ministry of Education’s provincial education plan framework for 2020-30, including the goals of fostering connections and relationships between educators, students and their families and creating inclusive, safe and welcoming school environments.
Meanwhile, the ministry — via the federal government — provided $4,910 for speech-language pathology therapy and educational psychological assessment services through the Jordan’s Principle program.
This is the second time that the division has received funds from this program, which ensures that First Nations children can access needed products, supports and services.
Between July 2016 — when the program began — and December 2024, the program has approved more than 8.7 million products, services and supports for children to use, from speech therapy to educational supports to medical equipment to mental health services. The initiative has also spent $8.8 billion to provide this support.
Lastly, SaskTel has provided Holy Trinity with $3,000 to support the school division’s new Esports initiative. This amount represents the first year of a three-year commitment from the Crown corporation for this project.
Grant-funding reduction
Holy Trinity may have received money for three initiatives, but it also lost money recently after the provincial government clawed back nearly $90,000 because of enrolment issues.
The division received its 2024-25 final grant information from the ministry recently and learned the province was reducing its funding by $89,570 — or 0.3 per cent — compared to the preliminary grant information that the division had received from the provincial budget.
In an email, division administration explained that Holy Trinity’s enrolment for this year did not meet the ministry’s projections, while the ministry did not change overall funding even though the total provincial student population increased by roughly one per cent.
This clawback occurred even though Holy Trinity was up 27 students or 1.1 per cent this year over the 2023-24 year and has its highest enrolment in the past 10 years, the email continued.
Holy Trinity plans to address this funding reduction using cost savings after an employee at the division office unexpectedly resigned, while the division will not replace that person for the rest of this fiscal year, administration added. Savings will also come through higher-than-anticipated interest revenue.
The next Holy Trinity board meeting is Monday, March 17.
